Last week, amid widespread media criticism of attorney Paul Clement’s apparent misstatements to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in connection with the Tom Brady appeal, New York Law School professor Robert Blecker sent a letter to the appeals court pointing out various alleged factual errors from the brief signed and oral argument presented by Clement on behalf of the NFL.

Earlier this week, Clement responded to Blecker’s letter. The NFL has forwarded to PFT a copy of Clement’s three-page response dated March 21.

In attempting to dismiss Blecker’s letter as “procedurally improper and wholly unfounded,” Clement initially explains that counsel for the NFL Players Association “had more than adequate opportunity to respond in the ordinary course,” both in the NFLPA’s written materials and at oral argument. Clement also chastises Blecker for not raising his concerns regarding alleged misstatements from Clement’s opening brief in Blecker’s “friend of the court” brief but instead through a post-argument letter submitted directly to the court. As a practical matter, it’s a lawyer’s way of complaining not about the substance of the argument but the way the argument was presented.

Clement then addresses the alleged misstatements, one at a time. As to the contention that Clement incorrectly suggested that Jim McNally referred to himself as “the deflator” in multiple text messages instead of only in one, Clement tries to turn the tables by suggesting that Blecker misinterpreted Clement’s full statement: “In messages dating back to May 2014 and continuing during the 2014-2015 season, McNally referred to himself as ‘the deflator’ and the two discussed deflation using ‘needles.'”

While it’s indeed incomplete to suggest based on the full quote that Clement suggested that McNally referred to himself as “the deflator” in May 2014 and throughout the 2014-2015 season, there’s an artful sort of deception lurking in the way the sentence was constructed, allowing Clement to claim, when push comes to shove, that he was technically being truthful despite the fact that, in reality, he was blurring the lines — and surely not accidentally.

As to the assertion that Clement told the appeals court that Brady’s counsel was present for many of the interviews conducted as part of the #Deflategate investigation when in reality Brady’s lawyers were present only for his own interview, Clement calls the statement immaterial to the argument in support of the position that Brady’s lawyers had no right to receive notes of interviews they did not attend. Regardless of how central the misstatement is to the argument, however, it’s still a misstatement — one that Clement’s letter does not correct or apologize for.

Regarding Blecker’s contention that Clement presented information regarding PSI measurements from halftime of the AFC title game between the Patriots and Colts in a misleading way, Clement claims that the statements regarding the PSI measurements are technically accurate, and that Blecker “simply disagrees with the damaging inference that the Commissioner drew from those undisputed facts.” Regardless, the PSI information is indeed presented in a misleading way.

Finally, as to Blecker’s position that Clement repeated the misstatement from Commissioner Roger Goodell’s internal appeal ruling regarding Brady’s explanation for the uptick in communications with John Jastremski after the deflation controversy emerged, Clement presents a convoluted word salad aimed at justifying the conclusion that Brady lied because he tried to justify the increased communications with Jastremski by pointing to the task of preparing footballs for the Super Bowl, not to the sudden urgency to talk arising from the investigation into potential cheating. In this regard, our item from August 4 says all that needs to be said on the matter.

Despite Clement’s protest regarding the format used by Blecker to raise the issue or the suggestion that Blecker obtained the January 26, 2016 letter placing Clement on notice of potential misstatements in his brief directly from the Patriots’ outside counsel, Blecker’s letter accomplished its goal — the appeals court is now aware of the issue. Given that the hearing from March 3 apparently didn’t go so well for Brady’s side of the argument, the tactic can’t hurt. Especially if the appeals court believes that Clement did indeed misstate the facts, and if the appeals court concludes that his letter doesn’t go nearly far enough when it comes to clarifying the record.

I don’t really care if the NFL rescinds Brady’s suspension, returns the Patriots draft picks, publicly apologizes to Kraft or whatever. What is unseemly and tiresome is Florio’s incessant lawyering for the Patriots while passing himself off as some kind of journalist. Florio’s posts read like the work product of a junior associate at the Patriots’ law firm or the spin from the team’s PR agency. It’s pathetic and apparently endless.

This whole thing has been a mess since the beginning. The false info of the PSI of balls that was leaked to ESPN by the league office all the way to these latest revelations. This was a big lose – lose for everyone. The Patriots reputation was damaged (one of the goals of the NFL), the reputation of the NFL (more people now detest the league and league office), Goodell (perhaps the most disliked commissioner ever and that includes all the Pro sports leagues) and last but not least the fans. This was handled so poorly. An equipment violation at the very most, this could have and should have been a minor issue.

Officials should squeeze the ball between plays since they touch the ball on EVERY PLAY. If it feels soft replace it. That’s it. Why do we need the Supreme Court to figure out what 2nd grade kids can figure out on the playground every day. If the ball is too soft, pump it up!

The judges should be furious because it makes them look less knowledgeable than the average fan following developments in the press. I was wondering how that one judge could possibly think the evidence was overwhelming. Now I know.

And why didn’t Kessler correct him?

In any case, Bleecker has to be fit to be tied
He thought he pulled a rabbit out of a hat for his client Goodell.

The NFL response is so close to what I was thinking, I posted and the majority of readers gave thumbs down….. 🙂

I agree with GurnBlanstonReturns, Florio is slanted against the NFL and in favor of Brady that he can not be unbiased. However, I must admit that I too have come to a conclusion on how I think this is going to go. Again, the thumbs down will come in droves for the position. The NFL will prevail……..

How can anyone possibly attack Florio’s journalistic integrity when he’s the only one stating the facts, and drawing common sense conclusions from them all while still leaving it up to the reader to decide. To say the journalistic job outside of this website is solid is beyond a joke, this entire thing is one big scam without the incentive of enough people to want to believe it. I respect truth in journalism, not gauging the breeze and selling out in that direction.

Shooting the messenger doesn’t really make any difference gurnblan. Stop reading if you don’t get anything out of it.

If everyone hasn’t already lost all confidence in anything the NFL league office has to say or do, the possibility that we may also get the opportunity to lose confidence in the justice system is lurking. A highly regarded appellate attorney who apparently is considered a potential candidate for appointment to our nation’s highest court just wrote a long letter basically saying that the truth is immaterial (or meaningless). It’s a classic display of what our justice system has become. It would be nice if the panel of judges actually cares about the truth (or at least the NFL’s track record of ignoring it). Taxpayer money is paying for the court system that has to keep fixing Roger Goodell’s blunders.

Gee gurn, the Pat fans didn’t like your comments. I sure did, and agree just under 100%. Well, not really under. Actually, more. With their incessant whining, I would hope they would fully acknowledge Patdom, and then PFT could just delete their trash. The blog would be much healthier, emitting an improved fragrance.

chawk12thman
Mar 24, 2016, 9:40 PM EDT
I read everyone’s comments here and in other topics and truly believe that most of you all are not actually reading the material and just the headlines. The appeal is not about 12.5 PSI, not about how many times someone admitted they were the “deflator” or what lawyers asked what questions to whom at depositions…..It is about the Commissioner’s authority under the CBA and whether or not the he can impose the penalty he did on Brady after following the procedure he followed.

The rest of this stuff is all Lawyer driven smoke screen, and is being projected by both sides. In fact, with PFT (Florio) leading the blog charge, another Lawyer BTW, it is in 3D. The truth of the matter is that if pressed, Florio would probably say the NFL will prevail. Not that he wants that, it just is what likely will be the outcome.

Would you prefer a journalist with no background in law trying to explain law to you. Maybe he sounds like he’s on Brady’s side because as a lawyer he thinks Brady is innocent.

Typical lawyer. Lies to the court and then calls out someone else when they point it out to the court. I hope these judges arent dumb enough to believe anything that the NFLs lawyer stated. They should fin him in contempt for lying and fine him.

Ray Rice missteps, Brady punishment, Greg Hardy case, Witholding statistics from the concussions, Michael Sam. Its hard to believe anyone could ever support or brlieve anything the NFL office or any of the Owners ever say, a greedy , lying and disengious lot. Profits before doing the right thing.

I don’t really care if the NFL rescinds Brady’s suspension, returns the Patriots draft picks, publicly apologizes to Kraft or whatever. What is unseemly and tiresome is Florio’s incessant lawyering for the Patriots while passing himself off as some kind of journalist. Florio’s posts read like the work product of a junior associate at the Patriots’ law firm or the spin from the team’s PR agency. It’s pathetic and apparently endless
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This post is the perfect follow up to Clement’s balderdash. It’s the verbal equivalent. magician’s slight of hand. Sorry NFL, we can see your strings now.

There are so many lies coming out of the NFL front office these days, it’s just a matter of time before a whistleblower provides TMZ or NYT with damning proof of an internal conspiracy to manipulate the truth. My money is on concussions, with an act of conscience being the motivator. Then again, the NFL is not unlike the Corleone family, but with more money to spend on covering their tracks – so maybe it will never happen….

It’s funny that the same people who were up in arms about Brady not getting suspended due to a potential legal technicality are the same ones that are completely OK with a legal technicality being the only reason he’d be suspended at this point.

What is unseemly and tiresome is Florio’s incessant lawyering for the Patriots while passing himself off as some kind of journalist.
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So you’ll criticize Florio for doing his homework and sticking to the real facts in this case, instead of other followers who just read the headlines and accept the numerous lies from the NFL, ESPN, Goodell, etc.

If more “journalists” did their homework like Florio did, Deflategate would be a scandal focused solely on the NFL.

Florio is slanted against the NFL and in favor of Brady that he can not be unbiased.

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No, Florio believes the Patriots and not the NFL, there is a difference between that and bias.

Pats fans are biased for the Pats, because they root for them.
Pats haters are biased against the Pats.

Florio doesn’t have a bias, he is neither a Pats lover or hater. In fact, in the early days of deflategate, he was strongly anti-Pats. But as information became available, he determined that what the NFL was doing was wrong. He based that on the facts the way he interpreted them.

If I was a judge and found out a lawyer lied like crazy in my courtroom, he’d be gone.

As for anyone thinking Florio is a Pats fan, lolololol.

He’s against the railroad lawyering the NFL has done against the Pats. If you read anything from him before defamegate, you’ll quickly realize he’s not a Pats fan at all. But then again, reality was never a strong point for all you haters lol.

So let’s get this straight: One lawyer used lawyer-speak and another lawyer used lawyer-speak to try to try to call out the first lawyer…and now another lawyer is using lawyer-speak to tell us how we should think and feel about that?

After reading the NFL’s lies, is it any wonder that U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman handed the NFL not only a legal loss in his court, overturning Commissioner Roger Goodell’s decision to uphold Tom Brady’s four-game suspension for his alleged role in DeflateGate, but public ridicule as well?

The NFL owners are the equivalent of the big tobacco CEOs and Goodell is their obedient servant, not the man of integrity they tell us he is.

Mark Cuban was correct. The NFL is in the process of destroying the game all in the name of maximum profits for the owners.

The average player lasts less than 4 years and then is gone. Yes some players last 10+ years but for every Manning, Brady or other outstanding player there are 200 that don’t last 2 years then discarded.

Now the NFL wants to be in control of individual teams success. The NFL will destroy this game within the next 5 years the way they are ruining the game with rule changes that make the game a lot less desireable to watch.

reality is the NFL needs to exert discipline as teams and players have both proven that given the chance, they will cheat lie and commit felonies nonstop

the discipline process should end at the appeal to the NFL
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Fair discipline isn’t the concern. However, Goodell’s “discipline” based on lies begs the NFLPA to take to the federal courts where federal judges have repeatedly exposed their lies and overturned the discipline in favor of the players.

Hey RandomGuy, they might be able to end at the appeal process if the corrupt commissioner wasn’t judge, jury and executioner and continuously inventing evidence and lies. Fix that and save the taxpayers some money.

Florio is not explaining any Law. He is giving his opinion which clearly is slanted in favor of Brady/Pats to the point that he tries to make arguments or comments to express that position. That is fine.

Just for the record, I have not said Brady or the Pats should be fined/penalized. I have just stated that I think the NFL has the Law on its side given the CBA and that they will prevail in the appeal. I also think Florio would put his money on that same outcome, if really pressed for an answer. Time will tell.

Florio is not explaining any Law. He is giving his opinion which clearly is slanted in favor of Brady/Pats to the point that he tries to make arguments or comments to express that position. That is fine.

Just for the record, I have not said Brady or the Pats should be fined/penalized. I have just stated that I think the NFL has the Law on its side given the CBA and that they will prevail in the appeal. I also think Florio would put his money on that same outcome, if really pressed for an answer. Time will tell.
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The COTNFL might have thought he had the CBA on his side when he doled out the initial punishment, but he threw the CBA out the window at the appeal hearing. It’s pretty clear that he denied Brady a chance at a fair hearing. He also blew it on the “independent” investigation thing as well, when he denied access to the notes of the investigation, saying it was privileged information.

gurnblanstonreturns says:
Mar 24, 2016 11:52 PM
I don’t really care if the NFL rescinds Brady’s suspension, returns the Patriots draft picks, publicly apologizes to Kraft or whatever. What is unseemly and tiresome is Florio’s incessant lawyering for the Patriots while passing himself off as some kind of journalist. Florio’s posts read like the work product of a junior associate at the Patriots’ law firm or the spin from the team’s PR agency. It’s pathetic and apparently endless.
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Ummm, that’s because Florio’s on the right side of the argument. In fact PFT is a breath of fresh air compared with ESPN and their lack of journalistic integrity. Being in cahoots with the NFL itself just oozes of bias & corruption from within.

stew48 says:
Mar 25, 2016 1:13 AM
Gee gurn, the Pat fans didn’t like your comments. I sure did, and agree just under 100%. Well, not really under. Actually, more. With their incessant whining, I would hope they would fully acknowledge Patdom, and then PFT could just delete their trash. The blog would be much healthier, emitting an improved fragrance.
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Gee Stew48, the Pats fans don’t care about your biased uneducated opinions. With all of Crybaby nation’s incessant whining over what equates to 0.3 psi (which you literally could not tell the difference of) I would hope you would fully aknowledge logical thinking humans, and then PFT could just delete your segregationalist mentality remarks as completely childish and self deluded propaganda.

If the NFL lawyers has a better argument to make before the court, they would have made it. Instead they made an argument based on lies, because, that is literally all they have to support their side. That the appellate judges sat there and ate up those lies so readily and seemed so unprepared with the material from the case is an embarrassment to the courts. If the judges don’t do their homework and issue a ruling filled with incorrect assertions, it will expand this farce to epic proportions.

Wrong. The players think that the league shouldn’t be able to lie and falsify evidence to punish a player. They don’t think that science denying to justify punishing a player is acceptable. They don’t think that you should be able to apply a double standard and ignore the Colts balls being under 12.5 psi and not punish them in any way. The list goes on and on.

I’d like you to show me where in the CBA it says the league can do all those things and all the other lies and things they’ve done in this charade.

I’ve been a fan of NFL football for over 50 years. I have given it up…watched my last NFL football game. And I know many others who are doing the same. The demise of the NFL is underway. Revenues have been climbing under this corrupt commissioner and his mob, but public perception of the NFL is going down the toilet. Sooner or later fans by the millions will come to their senses and stop supporting such a corrupt organization. It may take many years, but it will happen. And when it does, we can look back and thank serial liar Goodell…the most corrupt pro sports commissioner ever.

Spot on. For over 10 years I traveled back to New England to visit friends and attend a Pats home game, but last year I decided to skip it. I just couldn’t reconcile putting any more money in Robert Kraft’s pockets, after his laying down to the original Deflategate ruling, and his palling around with Rush, Trump and Murdoch. Since Myra died, Kraft has become a very public embarrassment to this fan, including his latest attempt to placate fans with that letter. Pathetic.

I stopped paying for NFL Sunday Ticket years ago when they jacked up the prices over and over (pay more for HD!), and watch the Pats for free now.

I haven’t watched ESPN since this whole crap storm started and Mortenson’s lies were propagated, and frankly I don’t miss it at all. The only time I’ll watch ESPN is if one of my teams is playing a game, I don’t watch Pre- or Post- game at all.

I’ve been attending Pats games since the mid-70s, grew up about 20 miles from the stadium, but I can definitely see myself giving up the NFL entirely at this point.

If the current trend of the leadership shown by the owners/Goodell continues, I’m sure I’ll finally walk away for good.